Week 52: Kelowna = The Promised Land

TRANFSER WEEK WAS CRAZY!!!!!! Monday was crazy trying to pack and get everything ready!!! This was my first "flight" on the mission and I had to get rid of a ton of stuff!!! So that took quite a while!!  Monday night was so

good though! We met with some members and their daughter just got back from her mission in Indiana so she gave us lots of mission tips!!! Then we had a GREAT lesson with Beatrice and Foziea!!! They are from South Sudan and speak Arabic!! We got them Arabic B.O.M.s and we read the introduction with them and Moroni's promise and IT CLICKED FOR THEM!! They both realized how important it was to read the B.O.M. and boy did they have a strong desire!!!! IT WAS SO COOL!!!! It made me feel super happy knowing that I was leaving Surrey and they were progressing and well on their way!!! Oh my goodness so happy!!!!!! Sister Magleby and I just looked at each other during the lesson and we were just amazed at how strong the spirit was!!! Tuesday...the crazy day!!! So I had to be to the mission office by 9am, so all the sisters met at the Stake Center and we said our goodbyes and then I was wisked away!!! COOL PART THOUGH....SISTER BRIMHALL CAME AND I GOT TO SEE HER!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!! SHE IS LEAVING LANGLEY :( BUT IT'S ALL GOOD WE'RE GOING TO GO BACK AND VISIT FOR SURE!!! Anyway... I sat at the mission office until 1pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND

THEN GUESS WHO WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR!!!!!! SISTER HAWKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was like a mission reunion! Oh my goodness we freaked out!!!!! She is replacing me in Surrey 3rd, so I got to show her pictures and we just had fun!! Then I got taken to the airport!!! All was good...we get to the gate and the sister I'm with says the worst thing you can say in an airport...no nothing about B.O.Ms...I CAN'T FIND MY WALLET!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness!!!! So when we travel we don't have phones or anything, so luckily I had Surrey 3rd's number memorized and we borrowed a random guy's phone and called them, and then called the Assistants and they were SO STRESSED OUT!!!! WHEN MISSIONARY TRAVEL PLANS ARE RUINED IT'S NOT GOOD!!! So we find out where her wallet is, in a mission car, but there's only 10-15 min till our flight LEAVES, so she calls the sisters and tells them to DRIVE SO FAST TO THE AIRPORT...she didn't have any form of ID, so she was either going to miss her flight or run so fast and hopefully make her flight...so she drops her bags and I said I would take them on the plane if she

didn't come back and she starts running back...she had to go back through security!!! In the meantime...I'm like how am I going to take four carry ons on the plane...well then I see a group of Elders and I summoned them and they helped me!! It was a blessing!!!! Haha Right as we were about to get on the plane..last call..she COMES RUNNING TO THE GATE!!!!! SHE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man it was intense...45 min later we were in Kelowna!!! Then I GOT TO SEE MY MOM.....well mission mom....SISTER RICKS!!!!!!!! I literally saw all of my companions in one day!!!!!!! Heavenly Father was smiling upon me!!! Then I met my new companion Sister Esplin! She's from Elko, Nevada!!!!!!!!!! We're the only two sisters in the mission {that we know of} from Nevada!!!! So we are stoked and we keep getting told Nevada jokes, and asked if we're gamblers and all that jazz...it's not very funny after a while. Wednesday was a great day!!! We met with so many people and had so many great lessons!!!! I LOVE KELOWNA!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so pretty here!!!! The people are so nice!! It's a big town but it has a small town feel!!! It's so wonderful!!!!! We had a miracle..we were downtown and we were trying to figure out where to go and we decided to try this recent convert Jenny who hasn't been able to come to church

because of work and she's so busy being a mom and stuff that they haven't been able to meet with her!! Well...she was home and sat down with us and we had such a spirit filled lesson!!!!!!! It was so great!!!!! Thursday we planned and I started to learn the area...it's confusing here because it's all NAME STREETS not NUMBER STREETS like Surrey and Langley. We met with Patricia and we set a baptismal date with her for September 24th!!! She is all ready to be baptized she just has to quit smoking!!!!!! THE STRUGGLE!!!! Every person I've helped to be baptized has had to do this and it's so hard for them!!! So to motivate her a little we decided to stop biting our nails...one of our bad habits and so far I've been doing so good!!! I have only caught myself once!!! I painted them all purdy that way I won't bite them!!! Hopefully this will help!! Her true friend Sister Packard is doing it too!!!! We also met with a former investigator named Connie who has tried to investigate the Gospel now 5 times and it's never worked. We had a sweet lesson and she said it's just her lifestyle that is keeping her from joining, and she's too busy to commit, {I was feeling bold} so I read her the scripture about seek ye first the kingdom of

God and then I asked her if she had the faith that God would help her...she said uh...yes!!! So we're super excited to help her!!! Saturday was a HUGE MIRACLE DAY!!!!!!!! It was walking day and we went on exchanges, so I went with Sister Steele from Hawaii!!! We went to Robinette's house {she's a recent convert} and when we were walking in we see this lady step out of her car, and so we start talking to her!!! We had a great convo with her, well after like 2 min...she finally lets on that SHE IS A MEMBER OF OUR WARD AND SHE'S HERE TO SEE ROBINETTE TOO!!!! hahaha I totally forgot we had called this member to come with us like my first day here!!!! hahah so embarrassing!!!! Early in the morning we had been joking about how we never get media referrals and how cool it would be to get one...well at 7:30pm WE GOT A MEDIA REFERRAL!!!! We had no clue where this lady lived but we had a strong prompting to call her immediately!!! So we did. Her name is Sarah and turns out we were walking like 1k down from her house!!! So we start walking there and IT'S OUT OF OUR AREA, so we got permission to go, but now it's like 8PM and we have to be in at 9PM. We were still pretty far away from our car so we ran!!!! We get there and it is not the nicest apartment building, and we were a little scared...but she let us in and she said she had a Jesus picture card and she called the number on the back to get a free DVD...WHAT?!?!? THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!!!! THOSE CARDS ACTUALLY WORK!!!!!!!! So we taught her about the  B.O.M. briefly, and she was so excited so we invited her to be baptized and she said she was so excited and she felt loved :) Aw!!!! We didn't have the DVD she requested so we planned to meet her

again on Sunday and she was still so excited!!! She said we were her angels :) We passed her off to the Elders and she should be well on her way to learning the gospel!!!! Sunday was fun!!! It was my first time meeting the ward!!! They are so fun!!! And even better...there was a family visiting from Surrey 3rd ward at church so I got to give her a big hug and it made me miss Surrey even more!!!!! Today we are just planning on BUYING FOOD!!!  We have been living off of cheese, bread, and oatmeal for this week!!! I am so excited to eat FRUIT!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAH and veggies!!!!!  There's also a zoo here in the Okanagan {Eastern BC} where you can hold a baby Kangaroo for $10 :) We might not have time to do that today, but next week for sure!!! IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!! Also I LOVE GETTING UPDATES ON INVESTIGATORS FROM OLD AREAS HERE'S ONE FROM BROOKSWOOD FROM SISTER BRIMHALL:

*the highlighted parts are my favorite :)

We taught Jolene this week! It has been a few weeks since we saw her last,

so it was good to follow up on her  B.O.M. reading. She is almost

through Alma! We asked her if she knew the Book of Mormon was true and she

said yes! We read the last paragraph of the Introduction with her and

invited her to be baptized again. We explained to her the importance

 of priesthood authority and she said that it made more sense.

We taught her about tithing and fasting and commited her to fast and pray

to know if she should be baptized. I totally milked it and guilt tripped her into

coming to church and told her that it could be my last Sunday and that I

wanted to see her there. SHE CAME!!!!!! I have never been more excited! I

think I cried the entire time because I was so happy! We have been trying

to get her to church since March and it finally happened! The spirit was so

strong during Sacrament meeting. 

YAYAYAYAYYAYAYYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!! I LOVE TO HEAR THAT MY OLD INVESTIGATORS ARE PROGRESSING!!!!!!!!! IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy to be here in Kelowna :) It's going to be a blast and I'm really excited!!!!

Love,

Sister Peterson

Week 51: BUSY BUSY BUSY...I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!

Phew...what a week you guys!!! 

FIRST TRANSFER NEWS!!!!!!!!!! I am.....GOING TO KELOWNA!!!!! IT'S ON THE BORDER OF THE OKANAGAN LAKE!!!! It's more east towards Alberta!!! IT'S SO PRETTY THERE!!!! I'M EXCITED!!!!! My new companion is Sister Esplin!! I wonder if she's related to the

Kelowna!

Esplin's in our ward!! That would be so cool!! Anyway I'm super sad to leave Surrey 3rd :( but excited for this new adventure!!! We had apartment inspections this week, so Monday night we were scrambling to make sure everything was spotless :) We passed!! hahah Our apartment is clean but we DEEP CLEANED so it was "Temple-like." Tuesday we had a lesson with Jolene and her son. Her son is 6 and he doesn't really know who Jesus Christ is so we used the Gospel Art Book and explained The Life of Jesus! It was REALLY COOL to see as we got into the lesson and talked more about Christ how they just calmed down. They leaned back and just listened. Her son was cuddled up next to her and they just calmed way down and seemed so peaceful. It was really cool to see how the spirit worked with them! We met with Sister Tanner!! She's the best!!! She has given away 4 Book of Mormons since I've been here in various languages!!! She's so good!!! Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting with our whole district FINALLY!!! We have the assistants in our district and they are so busy they are never there!!!! So we got

District Meeting Photo!

everyone together!!!!! We went on a little split with the Sisters and we saw lots of success!!! We met so many people in that short hour!! It was so cool!!! Thursday we planned planned planned!! I had a feeling I was leaving Surrey so we made sure to clean up our Area Book and make sure it was pristine!! A lot of our lessons/people didn't work out this week so we didn't teach that much but we definitely got things ready for Sister Magleby and Sister Hawke (oh yeah...SISTER HAWKE IS COMING TO REPLACE ME!!!!!!) to take off and do so much work here next transfer!!!!!! Friday we stopped by a potential the Elders found her name is DIANE!!! Just like one of my fav members in Campbell River Diane Tilma!! Turns out Diane's (the one is surrey...hahah) sister is a member and she has known Mormons for over 40 years!!! She said "if i was going to join any church it would be the Mormon church" WHAT?!?!?! AWESOME!!!!!!! So we straight up asked her why she hasn't been baptized...she said "I don't quite know!" SO WE INVITED 

USA mountains from BC!

HER TO BE BAPTIZED AND SHE SAID SHE WANTS TO LEARN MORE SO SHE CAN!!!!! Woooohoooo!!!!!! I'm excited to see her be baptized soon! Sad I won't be here to see it, but definitely excited that she wants to make that covenant with God!!! Saturday...the day we look forward too....TRANSFER CALL DAY!!!!!!! All day you go around worried if you'll be transferred or not...to be honest I FORGOT!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAH but then once I remembered I was SO NERVOUS!!! I felt like I was leaving...but I could stay....Heavenly Father told me to study Jacob 5 to prepare for transfers...so I was trying to glean anything I could from this chapter and I had a few options: 1) I'm going to the North "And it came to pass that the Lord of the Vineyard said unto the servant: come let us go to the Nethermost part of the vineyard..." Verse 19 2) I would stay and nourish it a little more: "But behold the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard: Spare it a little longer." verse 50 and it says It's the last time he will nourish the vineyard so I could have time left!!! hahah Anyway...Heavenly Father must have just gotten frustrated with my false

The Prasad's Love Them!!!

assumptions he said "just wait till you get your call then you'll understand." Well...I understand Heavenly Father's joke now....KELOWNA HAS TONS OF ORCHARDS AND FRUIT AND VINEYARDS!!! JUST LIKE IN JACOB 5!!!!!!!! Aside from that...Jacob 5 really was inspired reading from Heavenly Father because I really have felt unaccomplished here. I have tried so hard to do what's right and to help this area grow but we have seen little progression come from the people we're working with. THAT MAKES IT REALLY HARD! I really didn't want to be transferred because I feel like my work here isn't done...but I loved Jacob 5:47 "But what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh..." This verse gave me a lot of comfort..it really spoke to my soul! I have worked so hard to just bring "something" "one thing" to pass here! I feel like I've learned so much about missionary work and

Jayesh and I with our classic pose! I'll miss him!

how to just keep going even through challenges. I have done everything I can to "nourish" the vineyard here in Surrey 3rd and now I have to go and apply the same thing in Kelowna 2nd ward and work hard to become even better!!!!! Jacob 5:74 "And Thus they labored, with all diligence, according to the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard, even until the bad had been cast away out of the vineyard, and the Lord had preserved unto himself that the trees had become again the natural fruit..which was most precious unto him from the beginning."And it came to pass that when the Lord of the vineyard saw that his fruit was good. I know this change is going to be good for me...it's definitely a change!!! But I know that Heavenly Father is the one that inspired President Burt to make this change, so I'm excited to see what's in store!!! The next day was REALLY HARD!! I had to tell all my Surrey 3rd members that I'm leaving!! FOR SOME ODD REASON I ALWAYS SING A MUSICAL NUMBER THE WEEKEND I GET A TRANSFER CALL....So on Sunday Elder Vo, Elder Neil, Sister Magleby and I sang that arrangement "Army of Helaman and As Sisters in Zion" oh yeah...THAT ONE...and it was really good!!!! The theme of Sacrament was The Restoration  and so this musical number done by the missionaries was perfect!!!! I

Jayesh's Dolly he says bye to!

cried!! I'm going to miss Surrey 3rd so much!!!!! It was really hard saying goodbye :(  Since then I've been packing like a mad woman!!! I have so much stuff that has accumulated!!! This will be my first time flying on the mission so my bags have to weigh 50 lbs each...OOPS!!! Pretty sure they weigh like 65-70lbs hahahahha

So I'm going through a lot of myself...VALUE VILLAGE HERE WE COME!!!!  Last night I was able to visit with Bishop Prasad and his family!!! We live with them and they are the best family ever!!! I love them so much!!! We were playing with Jayesh (3 yrs old) and he was bouncing a balloon in his hand and I wasn't paying attention and he acted like he was going to throw it at me and IT SCARED ME SO BAD!!!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS LIKE A REGULAR BALL SO I FLIPPED OUT!!!!!!!!!! IT MADE HIM LAUGH SO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHHA So of course he being a 3 yr old did it again and scared me again!!!!!!!!!! We were all DYING OF LAUGHTER!!!! Jayesh is so cute!! He waves goodbye to us in the morning and he only knows Hindi and a few phrases so he says "BYE....I LOVE YOU!!" EACH MORNING!!! It's so cute!! Well the last couple days we haven't been able to do that, so he put a doll in the window and his parents said he says goodbye to that in the morning!!!! haha It's so great!!!!!!!! hahaha This morning was INTERESTING!!! I have been having a lot of headaches and pains in my neck and so before I fly out to the Wilderness they call Kelowna...I went to the

Thumbs up! Have a good week :)

doctor and I got...ACUPUNCTURE...or some new modern-world form of it!! IT WAS THE COOLEST THING!!!! I couldn't see it obviously but Sister Grant one of my sister training leaders took a picture of it and the needle went like 1-2 inches down into my skin and muscle!!!!! It didn't hurt at all, but it was the weirdest feeling in the whole world!!!!!! My muscles have been freaking out since...They say it gets worse before it gets better so I'm hoping I'll still be able to function okay tomorrow when I transfer to Kelowna!!!! Wish me luck!!!

Enjoy the pictures :) hahahah

OFF TO KELOWNA :)

Love,

Sister Peterson

Week 50: Quickest. Email. Ever.

Here's a quick recap of my week!!!! I don't have much time but I'll try my best!! Monday we had a great P-day until my head started exploding!!!! I got a super bad migraine!! It was terrible!!!!! I was able to get a blessing and luckily Sister Magleby and Sister Benincosa love doTerra so they gave me every oil under the sun to help me!!! Tuesday was AWESOME!!!! 

We visited with our friend Olga she is coming back to church!!! It was such a good lesson! We taught her the plan of salvation and it was amazing to see how she lit up again as we rekindled her testimony of God's plan for us!! His plan is so perfect!! It helps us to know who we are and our whole purpose in coming to this thing we call earth in the first place!!!! 

**side note: a member family showed us this picture this week...some say it's photo shopped...some say it's from NASA...I DON'T CARE IT'S SO COOL!!!!!! The Title is Heaven's Gate....So cool!!!!!!

 

Anyway...God is real. And I can't wait to play around on Google Space when I get home and see all of his SWEET creations!!!! So we met with another less active on Tuesday and we were talking about the Book of Mormon and she randomly said "I want to be sealed with my husband". UH.....AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Her husband isn't a member but she has such a strong desire to be sealed to him!! So hopefully she talked to him and we should start teaching him soon!!!

Wednesday was ZONE MEETING!!!! President Burt came and it was LEGENDARY!!! As a mission, we are now given 30 extra minutes of study so we can read JUST the Book of Mormon! We are reading it as a mission BEFORE Christmas!!! So on December 25th we will read Moroni 10 and finish!!! WE ALL GOT OUR OWN FRESH COPY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON WITH OUR NAMES IN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited!!!!!! If you want to join us we are reading 4 pages a day and it starts today!!! I'll send the schedule to my

family and they can post it!! We hung out with Simoa again on Wednesday and she went to lots of lessons with us!! She's the best!!!!! We had a dinner appointment with a member and she surprised us with a reservation at a Thai restaurant! That was really fun!!! She is such a great member and she had just given away a Book of Mormon to a friend so it was perfect that we met with her that night!!! Thursday Sister Magleby and I decided we're like the Frozen Song where it says "...we finish each others ...SANDWICHES... that's what I was gonna say!!" We literally help each other finish our sentences!! hahaha it happened ALL DAY!!! COMP UNITY! Friday we had the funniest experiences while tracting. We tracted into Aladdin... He opened the door and he said he would let us in but he was going to a Hockey tournament in about 15 min (he was flexing his muscles at us hahahahhaha) He said he grew up in Calgary and in Boise, Idaho so he knows all about us!!!! He literally look like a buff

Aladdin!!! He plays for an NHL team...so that was cool we should have gotten an autograph!!!!! Then after we left that street...we were walking and we hear a THUD we look in the sky and a bird had ran into an electrical line and all we see are FEATHERS EVERYWHERE!!!! It kept on flying though!!!!! hahahahaah What a perfect example of enduring to the end. Saturday we went to a members house to practice a musical number with the Elders for Sunday. This made me nervous because I ALWAYS SING A MUSICAL NUMBER THE SUNDAY BEFORE I GET TRANSFERRED!!!!! So...I'm hoping it's not true this time!!!! Saturday the Relief Society had a Disco!!! It was so funny!!! Our investigator Foziea came and she had a blast!!! She won musical chairs!!!!! It was great!!!! I also got another HUGE migraine on Saturday and one of the members had

to give me a mustard oil scalp massage!! I was hesistant at first to smell like mustard for a week...but I did it and I didn't smell at all!!! haha It felt so nice and got rid of my headache a little bit!!! It was really hard to get out of my hair but my hair looked awesome the next day!! So shiny!!!! hahaha Sunday we taught one of our investigators sons...he's 6 yrs old and we were just asking him little questions and we said "What's your favorite subject Dominic?" he said "uh.....my girlfriend!!" HAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA HE IS 6 YRS OLD!!!! His mom was like NO!! Like Science, Math, English...hahahahhhaha  He is such a funny kid!! He knows nothing about God or Jesus Christ so it was quite interesting teaching him! But they invited us back next week!!! Whew...okay that was my week :)

Sorry it was rushed I'll try better next week!!!

Love,

Sister Peterson

Week 49: Holy Toast! Another Week Has Gone By!

HOLY TOAST!!!!! We had a great week!!!

Funny Story: 

So Sister Benincosa (Senior Sister Missionary) says Holy Toast...I personally love it, so I stole it and I'm saying it now. Confession though, it's partly because I can't say Holy Cow anymore. I teach a lot of Hindu people who part of their religion is that they worship cows and saying that apparently can be offensive. So I adapt....and now say Holy Toast. 

Alright back to this week....having P-day on a Tuesday throws everything off! This week FLEW BY!!!  Tuesday we had such a fun day planned to go to White Rock and explore, but it was raining!!! Sad day...up side...IT FINALLY RAINED!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! It's been so hot here, and it's starting to get brown so we needed that rain! So we decided to do crafts for P-day!! We bought small canvas' and we PAINTED!!! I'll show you my poor artistic ability next week when It's all finished!! Tuesday was my 11 month mark...ooooo!! hahah It was nothing special I actually forgot which is AWESOME!!! It means I'm not worried about it anymore! I'm to the point where the time I have left is starting to scare me..AHHH!!!! Wednesday we had a great district meeting! Sister Benincosa was taking pictures of us during it and posted it on Facebook!! Luckily she got one where I actually look half decent!! We were accounting for our area!! Last week our percentage was low and this week it was high so I was really excited to account for the work we had done!! Anyway...so District meeting was great!!! We had some really good trainings and I learned a lot! The one I liked the most was on opposition and why we have so much in our lives! I've been reflecting on that lately as we've tried to find new people to teach and struggled to help them progress! My mission is literally a roller coaster! Later that day we stopped by a potential's house and the wife answered and said he wasn't home and that they weren't interested. We kept the conversation going with her, and as we were talking and about ready to leave she says "Oh there he is!" He was walking home from work!!! HE HAD THE RESTORATION PAMPHLET IN HIS HAND!!!!!!!! We asked him if he had read it he said YES!!! Then he said I have a question! He opened up to the picture of the 1st vision and we noticed that the part of the pamphlet that talks about The Restoration and the Restoration of the Priesthood was MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Simoa our awesome Member Missionary!

It had the picture of the 1st vision, but then it had the Book of Mormon page next...NO WONDER HE HAD QUESTIONS!!!! THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PAMPHLET WAS MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT'S THE UNIQUE MESSAGE WE SHARE TO THE WORLD!!!! Oh...face palm! BUT HERE DO A PUZZLE WITH YOUR SALVATION & ETERNITY! So we gave him a new pamphlet ...obviously.....and he asked us his questions and it was AWESOME!!! The fact that he still wanted to learn even after half of his pamphlet was missing showed us that the Spirit was working on his heart!!! His wife stayed with us the whole time and she asked questions too and we set up another appointment with both of them so THEY BOTH BECAME NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!!! It was sweet!!!! Andre has so much desire to find truth! You can see it in his face when you are explaining things! it was really cool!! We were so happy we kept talking to the wife and caught him coming home from work or else we would have never gone back....Heavenly Father is just so good!! Right after that we had to run to a dinner appointment and right after that we had a GREAT lessons with the kids of a less-active in our ward!! They are so ready to be baptized we just have to wait until they have permission! But they love the gospel so much!!! They love reading their Book of Mormon! We taught them about sacrament meeting and it clicked for them. They finally understood what it means to take the sacrament and we set alarms on their phones so they can wake up for church! The 7 yr old girl was saying the closing prayer and she said "I'm grateful we can go to church! YAY!!!!!!" It was the cutest thing ever! Then when we were talking about how they felt when they took the sacrament she said "you feel good, it's like a clear spirit." I loved the way she described it!! Little kids are
so close to the spirit!!! It was great!! Thursday was THE BIGGEST MIRACLE OF ALL!!!! So we had tried to get a female member to come to a lesson with one of our potentials whose a man. WE COULDN'T FIND ANYONE!! So we just decided we were going to stop by and reschedule. So we go and explain a little and he says, "Let me just ask my tenet Debbie." In our minds were like yeah she will LOVE to meet with the missionaries hahahahahah So

The Summer's from Salmon Idaho!!!!

he asks and she says, YES AND JUST WALKS IN WITH US TO SIT DOWN AND HAVE A LESSON!!! WHAT?!?!?! So we're teaching Joslyn the Restoration and he is asking lots of good questions and the Spirit was really strong!! We taught him in like 20 min because we were worried about Debbie the tenet getting bored and wanting to leave! But the whole time she was saying things that made me wonder...had she met with missionaries before???? So we asked her and she said, "I WAS ACTUALLY ON MY WAY TO BECOMING A MORMON...I TOOK THE LESSONS IN 100 MILE HOUSE AND I WAS 2 LESSONS AWAY FROM BEING BAPTIZED. ALL MY FRIENDS ARE MORMON" WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY TOAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We would have never of found her or knocked on the side door of the house, but Heavenly Father was looking out for us and he provided a way for us to meet Debbie the Tenet!!!!!!! She said she hadn't prayed about he Book of Mormon yet, and we invited her to come to our next lesson on Thursday and do you know what she said people, "Any time!" MIRACLE MIRACLE MIRACLE!!! SO....WE GOT 2 MORE NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We couldn't believe what had happened!! We were planning on just rescheduling and we were kind of bummed but HEAVENLY FATHER GAVE US SOMETHING SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!! It was awesome!! Then Joslyn called us 20 min later and said that Debbie asked for his Book of Mormon because she couldn't find hers and he needed a new one!!!!! SO AWESOME!!!!!!! They are keeping each other accountable for reading and coming to church too!! hahahah  Friday was way good as well!!! We asked a new member of our ward Simoa from New Zealand to come with us to a lesson!!!

She's an RM from the Philippines and so she was so excited!!! Our investigator didn't show at the church, so we were just standing outside and a family starts walking through the church parking lot...we started chatting and they say their from Idaho...WE IMMEDIATELY ASKED WHAT PART...Sister Magleby being from Idaho Falls and all...and they said SALMON, IDAHO!!!!!!!!!!!!! What!?!?! My wonderful grandparents live in the really, really small town of Salmon, Idaho. I asked if they knew Bill and Merlene Peterson(my grandparents), The Bills (my aunt, uncle, and cousins) the whole Clan basically and they said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome!!!!!! They are in the same ward as my awesome cousiin Nathan and Elisha!!! Their last name is Summers! I almost cried it was so great!!!!!! They were on their way to Vancouver Island and they stayed the night in their super sweet tour bus by the Stake Center!!! It was a little tender mercy :) So after our investigator no showed...we were planning on dropping Simoa off, but SHE ENDED UP STAYING THE WHOLE DAY WITH US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10am to 8:30pm!! She's a rock star!!!!!! She helped us so much!!!!!!! We had a really fun day and taught so many lessons!!!!! Saturday we were walking to our investigators house, and the street we were walking down was closed off and there was a Sikh temple celebration going on!! We thought it was just one block so we kept walking through every one...well it lasted 10 blocks!!! And it ended just before our investigators house!!! We stuck out like a sore thumb in the crowd and everyone kept looking at us!! Oh my goodness it was funny as we tried to pass by!

There was SO MUCH FOOD!!!! It was really cool to experience that! Canada is so culturally diverse!!!! It was like we were in India with the music, the language, and the street food!!! Pretty cool :) Today we are going to try and find Sari's the clothes they wear!!! Sunday was really good! We had a great Sabbath and we were able to go on splits with Sister Benincosa and she taught me my new phrase: Holy Toast!!! ahhahahahaha It makes me laugh so hard!!!! We had a great dinner appointment with Simoa and her aunt and uncle and they made some GOOD FOOD! The spirit is always so strong in their house and we always have such good gospel conversations there!! I'm sad they are moving soon :( At the end they gave us the leftovers...including some corn on the cob!!!!! YUM!!! We didn't have time to run it home so we just left it in our car...after we came out of our lesson we got in and I about hurled you guys!!!! hahahah OUR CAR SMELLED LIKE CORN AND IT WAS SO STRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love corn...it's my fav food...but the overwhelming smell of corn was so bad!!!! Sister Magleby made me pull over and she got out and moved it to the trunk but the damage had been done! So we drove home with the windows open and heater blasting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahhahahhah It was hilarious!!!!!! I'm excited to eat Corn on the Cob for lunch though :) Overall we had a GREAT WEEK FILLED WITH SO MANY MIRACLES!!!!!!! Love you all and thank you for your good thoughts and prayers on my behalf :)  It's wonderful to know I have such great support back home :)

Love,

Sister Peterson

​

Week 48: 11 Months Today! Holy Cow!

Sorry i didn't email yesterday...ANOTHER CANADIAN HOLIDAY....I SWEAR THERE IS ONE EVERY WEEK!!!!!

So this last week was super good!!!!!!!!! We were able to meet with so many people!!! We were also able to have members present at lessons which are GOLD!!!!!  Monday after we emailed we went to the mall...no judgements okay!!! We went back into charming charlies (Sister Magleby's mom sent us some coupons during emailing!!!!) And I bought a new bag because mine is falling apart!! Literally as soon as we got home...MY OLD BAG BROKE!!!

It was a miracle I had just bought one!!!! Anyway :) After P-day we visited my best pal Sister Curd and we had a great lesson...SHE GAVE US 6...COUNT EM...6 REFERRALS!!!!!!!! She also used the funniest phrase after I told her about my bag breaking...she said "It had the biscuit!!" hahahahahhah It was great!! I also found out that she's a writer and wrote a series that takes place during the war. I can't wait to read them all when I get home!!! Tuesday was the best ever!!!! We had 2 member present lessons with Sister Benincosa and USA friend Kalyn from Florida...she's up here doing an internship, so we took her out for a lesson!! She's an RM from Brazil and she served with Cambria's sister!! She was so good in our lesson with our investigator Jolene..yes another Jolene :) hahah {You know you've got the Jolene...Jolene...song stuck in your head!!!!} Anywho!! So we had some great lessons!! Then we went to the Rameka's for dinner Jess and Jessie. I'm sure i've talked about them before! They are SO FUN!!!! I've decided that I need to visit Australia! We had a really good lesson with Sis. Rameka about the Plan of Salvation! We taught her how to teach it and bring it up in daily conversation!! It was really fun!! Then...She told us she was going to the states to buy groceries...So we BEGGED HER {she was actually pretty willing} to buy us AMERICAN OREOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People, there is such a big difference between Canadian and American Oreos!!! She bought us 2 FAMILY SIZE PACKAGES!!!!!!! We were so happy!!!!! Oh my goodness!!!!!! The Ramekas are the best!! They are new to Surrey and don't have many friends to refer us to but they have joined our mission prayer at 9am every morning and pray that we'll find people to teach and that they will find people too!!! THEY ARE THE BEST!!! Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting! I trained on Patience...ah that HEAVENLY VIRTUE!! All week as I was preparing I had no idea what I was going to do!!! I wasn't being prompted this way or that way...so I just prayed that I would figure something out!!! THEN IN MY TRAINING I DID!!!! It was so cool!!!! I just

talked. I didn't use my notes very much and I felt like my training was really coming from the heart! I shared the story of when Jesus forgave the adulteress and how he had patience with her, with himself, and with her accusers. It was a really powerful moment as I related the story and talked about how we needed to exercise patience. As missionaries we represent Jesus Christ. If we aren't patient with our investigators, our companions, our members, our leaders...we ARE NOT representing Christ. I have come to love this story...you should watch the bible video...here's the link: https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/go-and-sin-no-more?lang=eng#gallery= Just think about how you can be more like the Savior whenever you face a tough time and how you can have patience like he did. Gosh I love that photo...Christ is SO GOOD!!!  The rest of the week was pretty good!! We had a commitment as a Zone for each companionship to set 2 baptismal dates!! That was a tough task for us because no one is really progressing right now, but we just decided that we would invite people. So we stopped by our friend Sainaaz's house. Her and her kids are taking the lessons. We invited her and her son Rihan to be baptized and they said they would pray about it and let us know!!!! That's 2 people praying for a baptism date!!! We weren't able to set 2 dates, but we have people thinking about it which is much more than we had last week!!! On Thursday we got home around 9 and our street was completely blocked off with cars!!! We had to beg this guy who parked in the middle of the street to move so we could get home hahaha We got out of the car and it turns out they were having an Indian Wedding!! The wedding was on the 31st but the whole week before they celebrate! So one night was Henna night...we got invited by the dad but had to decline :( But this night with all the cars they had a DANCE PARTY IN THE STREET!!!! With drums and other instruments!!!  IT WAS SO COOL!!!!!!!! There were about 80-100 people that just piled out of this small house on our street and they were wearing Sari's {I think that's how you spell it...the beautiful colorful outfits with scarfs!!} and they were all so happy!!! Sister Magleby and I took a video of it!! IT WAS SO LOUD!!! We were saying our prayers and all we could hear were drums hahahaha We had a super sweet lesson with Jean on Friday! We met with the Benincosa's at the Church and then we had a conference call with the Chinese Sisters!! Jean and them

The couch before....

just talked and talked!! They asked her questions to make sure she was understanding what we taught and she is!!!! IT WAS SO GREAT!!!! She loved talking to them and learning about the gospel in her own language!! It was so cool!!We had another lesson with Simon and we went over the Restoration again. We brought the Benincosa's because last time he told us that we are young and we can't teach him because he's old and knows more...:) hahaha so While we were teaching, the Benincosa's were trying to teach, but Simon would only listen to me because he knew me and "we were friends." That put a lot of pressure on me to do a good job!!! By the end he told us that he didn't think Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that we're just some other church :( It made me really sad because I know that's not true!!!!!  SATURDAY WAS THE BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! President and Sister Burt came and studied with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We role played a lesson and they played the members. We had to teach the Restoration in 7 minutes! IT WAS SO NERVE-RACKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They had this whole plan to throw us off and distract us...but they didn't. They said they tried and we just left no room for them to distract us. They said we did such a good job!!!!!!! PHEW....it was really fun!!! After we studied together and they toured our humble abode we said a prayer and President re-dedicated our apartment!!! It was the best moment ever!!!! He prayed for so many things that we needed!! After that we all went upstairs and had a brunch with the Prasads!! Bishop and President talked about their vision for Surrey 3rd ward and it was really great!!! President saw some of the Indian Wedding Celebration and was SO EXCITED!!!! HAHAHAH It was a great day!! He even mentioned us in his weekly newsletter!!!

Funny story on Saturday: We were tracting and this guy answered the door...he looked like a mix between Happy and Grumpy from Snow white. He wasn't very interested in us coming back, so we asked him if he would watch a video on the internet...he says, "What's the internet???" We were like....you've got to be kidding me....he said "We're amish." Oh....okay then never mind we started to leave hahahahh super embarrassed!! Then he started laughing and said, "Do you see our horse and buggy in the drive???" We look...they have like 4 cars...HE TOTALLY GOT US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was funny!!

The couch after.....Bahahahahaha!

Sunday was good! We got a text at 5am saying we needed to teach Gospel Principles so I had to quickly make up a lesson before church!! It worked out well and we actually had a really great time!!! SISTER RAMEKA BROUGHT OUR AMERICAN OREOS TO CHURCH!!!!! MIRACLE!!! We stopped by Beatrice's house! We've been trying to meet with her and today her friend was there. We got started talking and she said that she had met with the Elders in Smithers..more north/middle of British Columbia...ish... So we were like WHAT!?!??! She said she had an English Book of Mormon and she had read it!!! HOLY COW!!!! So now Beatrice and her friend Faziea are investigating together!!!! SWEEET!!!! We got a call from Elder Wilson saying that President Burt said we needed new furniture. He obviously wasn't too impressed when they came to visit! Oops! So Elder Wilson said he would bring us some new stuff!!!!!! So he came with 2 other Elders and took away our couch, but it woudn't fit up the stair well so they had to rip it apart!!! It was really funny!!!!! All they had were a few hammers and a cro-bar...but it worked and they got that couch out of there!!! New pics to come :)

Overall it was a GREAT week!!!!

We saw some sweet miracles and had lots of laughs!!! I'm so grateful for my mission!!! I've learned so much!!!! I'm grateful for President and Sister Burt!!! They are such a fun couple and the best Mission President and mission mom i could ask for!!! Hope you all have a great week!!! 

Love,

Sister Peterson